Partnering and data sharing: How digital banks hit different to deliver great experiences for their digitally savvy customers

 

Ubank’s CEO Philippa Watson and Head of Product for Everyday Banking, Andy Wright speak at the 10th annual Australian FinTech Summit.

In a discussion during the 10th annual FinTech Summit, ubank’s CEO Philippa Watson shed light on how ubank is redefining customer experiences through its third-party partnerships. Ubank, Australia’s multi award-winning online bank, is dedicated to delivering a fast, digital, and simple banking experience to the tech-savvy 18-35 age group.

Ms Watson shared the stage with other industry leaders and together they explored how fintech is reshaping the financial services sector, promising lower costs, enhanced accuracy, personalisation, scalability, and growth.

To achieve its customer value proposition, ubank has undergone a significant technological transformation in recent years, allowing for faster innovation, shorter product cycles, and more personalised approaches. Ms Watson said, “We’re Australia’s first online bank. We acquired neobank 86 400 in May 2021, which provided a fresh, modern technology platform with minimal legacy systems, specifically designed for deposit and home lending products, and was exactly what we needed.”

The ubank team is proud to scale its platform and deliver new capabilities in collaboration with leading with third parties.

Ms Watson said, “For our partners engaging with us, we’re highly regulated and accountable to our customers, regulators, and shareholders for full system availability at all times. We prioritise resilience, stability, and the ability to scale rapidly. We know that our future lies in finding great partners who excel in their domain, enabling us to accelerate.”

In a later session, Andy Wright, Head of Product for Everyday Banking at ubank, illustrated how partnerships enable the bank to deliver data-driven insights and automation, enhancing the customer experience.

Mr Wright talked about one of ubank’s most popular features, ‘Connected Accounts’, which enables customers to see their accounts across all their different banks in one place. “We provide this service with our partner Yodlee, who powers the data aggregation as well as personalised insights,” he said.

Ubank also leverages customer data to improve customer experiences and bank efficiency in its Home Lending business.

“We rely on data to enable automation and improve our home loan experience end to end. We work in collaboration with multiple partners, including Simpology, to streamline the home loan onboarding process,” he said. “This includes capabilities like auto-decisioning to approve, refer, or decline applications based on credit rules, with an efficient process and robust risk controls to provide customers with a swift response for a confident home-buying journey.”

In another key focus for ubank, Mr Wright explained that “Innovative use of data is also critical in how we protect our customers from fraud and scams. A great example is the use of behavioural biometric data as part of our customer on-boarding process, in partnership with Bio-Catch. It’s all about continually improving our fraud detection and response capabilities to keep our customers secure and informed across all channels,” he said.

Both Ms Watson and Mr Wright highlighted ubank’s straightforward customer value proposition.

“Our approach to partnerships and data is really about providing even better insights to help customers manage their money better, whether it’s saving, fast-tracking achieving their goals, or avoiding financial hardships,” Mr Wright concluded.

For more information on ubank, including its everyday banking products and features and home loans, visit www.ubank.com.au. For more information on the Fintech Summit, visit www.australianfintech.com.au.